4 Commonly Underutilized B2B Website Best Practices

Are you still struggling to get leads on your website even after applying all the common website best practices? And are the conversion rates on your website too low?

If that’s the case, you need to rethink now. Nothing hurts a B2B online business more than a website that does not convert. A website that does not give you leads should not even be called website. It should rather be labeled a bad salesman.

The problem with suggestions like “strategize your content”, “optimize website according to sales funnel”, “use images”, and “get a better UX” is that they are not specific. And once you have implemented these general suggestions according to your website know-how, you will never know what went wrong.

Here are some specific, to-the-point, and replete-with-examples type B2B website practices that will help you increase leads and conversion rate of your website (apart from improving the UX altogether)

1. Popups (It’s way better than you had thought)

First let’s talk about pop ups. The first thing that comes to a users mind when they see a pop ups is: $%#&! In fact, many B2B businesses I have dealt carry this assumption and are afraid to experiment with popups.

This assumption and aversion to popups is A BIG MYTH!

No doubt popups have earned themselves a bad reputation. In some cases, people do find it annoying. But popups have proven time and time again that they are the most effective ways of converting website visitors into leads. Only when it is used effectively.

Pop up is automatically open display content window without any action of the user

How popups helps get the most out of your website

1. Increase conversion rates with popups

According to Kissmetrics, 98% of people that come to your website leave without signing up for any product, service, or sign ups.

Even though this is not a good example since some marketers might not be focusing on getting leads. They might be simply focusing on increasing web traffic. But even then 98% is a huge percentage, isn’t it?

To convert traffic you need to engage your visitors. Using pop ups, you can engage with your customer with enticing offers and content that drive the visitor to take action which you want them to take.

2. Build an email list

If you are not building an email list, you are losing a lot of opportunity from your website traffic. Email lists are the best way to build an engaged and faithful audience, sell a product online, or create hype around your next big event or service project.

So, present your sign up in the place where it is highly visible with a strong call to action by using a popup. To drive more signups you can also add incentives like discounts, free shipping, and contest entry.

So adding a delay of 10-15 seconds to your popup will allow visitors to form an opinion on your website before they leave. You can open up to more conversion opportunities by keeping your popup within this range.

2. Design your popup copy effectively

Popups are nothing more than a way to convey a message to your website visitor. So as long as your user sees the popup, it all comes down to the content on your popup.

When you are writing popup copy, you need to answer these question:

What kind of value the visitor is receiving?

What they have to do to receive the value?

When and where they will receive the value?

2. Website notifications

Now let’s move on to website notifications.

A clickable message that are sent by websites to their subscriber browser.

It work very similar to a mobile app push notification except website notification work for website instead of apps and can be deployed for all devices.

It is different from mobile push up notifications which are limited to mobile device and tablets. Website notification covers all devices including mobile, tablet, desktop, etc. It gives instant power to communicate with the visitor through website.

According to a report by Smart Insights, desktop usage still accounts for 42% of total internet time and by using website notification you can target those 42% of users.

Another important point of using website notification that you can explore various communication channels like email, social media, SMS and push notification to reach and engage visitors.

How to use website notification effectively

1. Be clear in what you are saying

For website notifications, you have only 40-120 characters to say what you want to say. And considering a website and a browser has a lot of elements to interact with, you need to be extra clear with your message.

It’s crucial that your message is concise and says only what it wants to say.

2. Consider time-zone

If you want instant response from the part of the receiver then it is important to take time zone of the website visitor into account. You don’t want your notification to show up when the stars are twinkling.

To fix, this you need to clearly understand how your receiver is spread across the globe and be very particular that each time zone receives the message at an appropriate time.

Another thing you need to take into consideration is that different kind of notification work at different time. It is crazy to send promotional message when the people are feeling bored at office, send them some funny or witty message.

3. Implement user-friendly forms

Forms allow people to sign-up, subscribe, or download an offer. That’s the door to a lead or a conversion or any sort of interaction on a website where you get some information from the visitor.

To make your form user friendly, you need to first understand what make user happy, annoyed or frustrated by understanding this you can avoid the frustration of the user.

Whether you are building a donation form, a registration form, or even a simple contact form, you need to understand the purpose and design accordingly.

But before building user friendly form, you first need to understand why these forms are abandoned?

One of the biggest reasons for the user to abandon your form is that they get scared by an overwhelming and disorganized look of form. They find your form difficult to understand, read or to fill out which make your user to abandon your form completely or even your entire website altogether.

Your form should be clear and understandable. One look must suggest what time it would take to complete it. And there should be no question in users mind when they see your form.

How to create user-friendly forms

1. Keep label outside the box

As a good thumb rule, it is a good idea to keep labels outside the box of the input field. This way label is visible to user all time when filling out the form. So that the user never forgets what any given field is for.

Many website are using minimal design. And they implement it in forms by reducing clutter. That is, by placing label text inside the form.

The problem with label that once you start filling the field, you can’t see the label anymore especially with longer form this can pose a major problem.

2. Avoid MORE THAN ONE column

If you are using more than one column, you’re helping users get confused. See how easy it would be to ignore the column on the right in this example?

3. Avoid generic “Submit Button”

Generic buttons like “Submit” are not user-friendly simply because they are too general! They do not create a good experience. And surely, it doesn’t contribute to elaborate the purpose of the form.

A user who submits a form with “Submit” button does not get any idea from the button about what the form is for. Or what action did he actually take. Or what he should expect after the click.

Instead of these generic button use descriptive copy to explain what the button is for. For example “Sign up now”, “Download your free book” or “Continue to shopping cart”.

For creating clear and user friendly forms, we recommend WPForms to WordPress users. It is the latest, most powerful and easy to use WordPress form builder.

4. Create segmented landing pages

You must be operating some landing pages on your website. Some pages simply for conversion. Some for eBook download. Some for getting access to a whitepaper. Or even for watching a video. But are all your users seeing the same landing page?

If that’s so, it’s time to introduce you with segmented landing pages.

In simple words, it means that creating separate landing page for the information you have.

Here’s an example from Manpacks, a business which deliveries man toiletries and other necessities directly to your door. They have created two landing page for two different segment of people.

Why segmented landing pages

Online traffic is like mixed fruit and marketing your business to such a mixed crowd is challenging. The challenge here is to provide the right content, information, and offer to this crowd which appeals them.

This task becomes much easier when you group similar people together into segments and provide each segment a different version landing page. For this, you need to strategically design your landing page with right information and offer by understanding all types of your users.

This strategically designed landing pages based on the similar group of people will naturally increase your engagement and can dramatically increase your lead conversion rate.

How segmented landing page increase conversion rate

Through segmented landing page, you can target your visitor with relevant message and can create opportunity by generating conversion for your websites. You can also nurture those leads down to sales funnels by marketing those leads through email, phone calls, or social media.